Page 50 of Her Passionate Hero

When she got back to school that following Monday, Lupita and Theresa showed up wearing scarves over their heads, and they refused to look at her. It wasn’t until Tuesday that Heather arrived in a wig which somewhat imitated her blonde hair. That was when everyone caught on that all three of the girls were bald. It was confirmed when Jose Garmin tugged off Heather’s bad blonde wig in first period and Lupita’s scarf during lunch. The ‘Alley Fat’ days ended for a while, and instead ‘Bald Bitches’, ‘Shaved Skanks’ and ‘Hairless Whores’ were the butt of all the jokes.

Hunter laughed outright. “God Aliana, you were always braver than you knew. I love that you can laugh about that now.”

“What are you talking about? I hid behind you.”

“Laughter through tears, right? I’ve been there, got the T-shirt.”

“You cry?” She couldn’t picture it.

He got a faraway look in his eye. “I cried for you that day.”

She stared at him stunned. Finally, she got her voice. “But not since you grew up, right?”

He frowned. Then ever so gently, he brushed a stray tear from her cheek. “What kind of man would that make me if I hadn’t felt strongly enough about things to cry about them?”

He was remembering something really bad. She could see the sorrow in his eyes. She hated it. She reached out and for the first time, she touched him. Cupping the side of his face, she gave him a soft smile.

“Thank you for being there for me. You made a difference in my life. I couldn’t have survived without you, Hunter.”

“You got it wrong, I couldn’t have survived without you.”

He made her feel like a heroine from a novel. How was that possible?

He cleared his throat. “You have to tell me about Mateo. I need to know what happened.”

She bowed her head. He was right.

“I guess it’s no different, you know almost all the ugly parts of my life.”

“Chaquita, one day you’ll learn you can tell me all the ugly, and it won’t matter.”

How she wished that were true.

“Mateo and three of his friends jumped me in the parking lot outside of my townhome. The security cameras had been vandalized two days before. I couldn’t help but wonder that it might have been planned.” She was proud how even her voice sounded. Now if she could just keep it that way.

“Four men?”

“Not men, exactly, more like boys. Students.”

“Really? Mateo is twenty-one, isn’t he? That qualifies as a man in my book,” Hunter said harshly.

“Anyway, before I could get to the pepper spray in my purse, one of them came up behind me and jerked both up my arms up behind my back. I was worried he was going to dislocate my shoulders.”

Still calm. She could do this.

“Fucker.”

“Mateo pulled out a knife. He put it against my throat. I knew he wasn’t going to kill me.” Damn, she heard her voice shake just a little. “He made a lot of noise about how I needed to stop encouraging Nicolas.”

“Let me guess, you argued.” Hunter’s eyes glittered down at her.

She didn’t respond, she knew better. “For some reason, Mateo escalated.”

“Goddamn it, Alia, you’re the reason he escalated. You should have just agreed with him.” Hunter reached out and touched the small bandage on her throat. “Then what happened. How did he escalate?”

“He… He…”

Hunter tugged her close, then tipped up her chin. “Tell me Cariña.”